[liberationtech] Where can I find the Twitter censorship handbook?

[Jillian C. York]

On Sat, Dec 15, 2012 at 1:18 PM, Julian Oliver <julian at julianoliver.com>wrote:

>
> Per-country censorship:
>
>
> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/27/twitter-censorship-policy-global-outrage_n_1238188.html
>
> Trending topics:
>
>
> http://blog.tweetsmarter.com/twitter-rules/twitter-admits-editing-offensive-trending-topics-plans-more/
>
> Or not:
>
>
> http://thenextweb.com/twitter/2012/01/27/twitter-isnt-censoring-you-your-government-is/
>
> There was also this case of Twitter blocking an account with pro-Nazi
> sentiment:
>
>
> http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57534798-93/report-twitter-bans-german-group-for-hate-speech/
>
> Even if Twitter did 'censor' tweets/accounts etc, we can hardly get all
> that
> upset about it (although it should be in the TOS).
>

It's that sort of in-the-box thinking that allows so many to just sit back
and watch Facebook et al take over the online public sphere, changing the
norms of how we interact, what we say, etc.  Just because it's not
government censorship doesn't mean we oughtn't fight against it.

>
> Twitter is as much Public Space as a shopping mall; it's a privately owned
> service. Twitter and Facebook aren't part of the Commons yet regularly I
> hear
> people, from professors in the Humanities to activists referring to them as
> such.
>
> People's Tweets, Facebook walls, GMails are on a businessman's hard disk,
> surrounded by air-con, security-guards, lawyers and share-holders.
>
> Cheers,
>
> --
> Julian Oliver
> http://julianoliver.com
> http://criticalengineering.org
>
> ..on Sat, Dec 15, 2012 at 12:47:31AM -0800, Brian Conley wrote:
> > John,
> >
> > So am I mistaken that Twitter "blocks" (and by blocks I mean does not
> allow
> > to be visible) certain content in certain countries, in accordance with
> > local regulation?
> >
> > I'm not saying its right or wrong, but unless I'm mistaken about this,
> its
> > a bit melodramatic to get on your high horse about the "lack if
> censorship
> > or mediation" of tweets, which, if twitter filters tweets based on
> location
> > is just prima facie untrue.
> >
> > I happen to completely understand why twitter does this and believe the
> > ability to "change your set location" in order to avoid the filtering is
> a
> > good workaround. That said, no need to be rude, dramatic, or misleading.
> >
> > Brian
> > On Dec 15, 2012 4:38 AM, "John Adams" <jna at retina.net> wrote:
> >
> > > I work there. Read the damn TOS.  Twitter -does not- censor or meditate
> > > content.
> > >
> > > https://support.twitter.com/articles/15794-abusive-behavior
> > >
> > > and
> > >
> > > https://support.twitter.com/articles/18311-the-twitter-rules
> > >
> > > It's a serious affront to all the work we've done to enable people to
> > > freely communicate, and the number of times that we've gone to bat for
> > > users,  to make posts like these.
> > >
> > > -john
> > >
> > >
> > > On Fri, Dec 14, 2012 at 6:36 PM, Griffin Boyce <griffinboyce at gmail.com
> >wrote:
> > >
> > >>   Have you tried contacting twitter support directly? In the first
> > >> instance, it's likely that you were reported by someone who saw it
> and took
> > >> offense to it.
> > >>
> > >>   As for having tweets reported for spam, it could have been a
> competitor
> > >> (and that type of reporting is easy to automate). But the Twitter spam
> > >> algorithm could also have interpreted the [short tweet length + link +
> > >> popular hashtag] as being spam.
> > >>
> > >>   From a merchant perspective, we kind of operate at her majesty's
> > >> pleasure.  By that I mean that social networks make the rules,
> enforce them
> > >> (or not), and our only real recourse is to move to another, less
> populated
> > >> social network.  I'd recommend talking to twitter support before
> totally
> > >> writing it off, but you might not get a resolution for the reasons
> > >> mentioned above.
> > >>
> > >> Best,
> > >> Griffin Boyce
> > >> @abditum
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> On Fri, Dec 14, 2012 at 8:42 PM, Uncle Zzzen <unclezzzen at gmail.com
> >wrote:
> > >>
> > >>> Warning for the politically-correct: this message contains the
> N-word. I
> > >>> believe it is in context :)
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> --
> > >> "I believe that usability is a security concern; systems that do
> > >> not pay close attention to the human interaction factors involved
> > >> risk failing to provide security by failing to attract users."
> > >> ~Len Sassaman
> > >>
> > >> PGP Key etc: https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/User:Fontaine
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> --
> > >> Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password at:
> > >> https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech
> > >>
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password at:
> > > https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech
> > >
>
> > --
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>
>
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